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Poetic Edda

  Svipdag spake:
35.[1] "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask,
 For now the truth would I know:
What call they the hounds,  that before the house
 So fierce and angry are?"

  Fjolsvith spake:
36.[2] "Gif call they one,  and Geri the other,
 If now the truth thou wouldst know;
Great they are,  and their might will grow,
 Till the gods to death are doomed."

  Svipdag spake:
37. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask,
 For now the truth would I know:
May no man hope  the house to enter,
 While the hungry hounds are sleeping?"

  Fjolsvith spake:
38. "Together they sleep not,  for so was it fixed
 When the guard to them was given;
One sleeps by night,  the next by day,
 So no man may enter ever."

  Svipdag spake:
39. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask,
 For now the truth would I know:

  1. ↑ The last two lines have been variously emended.
  2. ↑ Gif and Geri: both names signify "Greedy." The first part of line 3 is conjectural; the manuscripts indicate the word "eleven," which clearly fails to make sense.

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